Elsewhere today (378)
Aljazeera:
Israeli commando raid in Tyre
Saturday 05 August 2006, 13:47 Makka Time, 10:47 GMT
At least five people have been killed and eight Israeli commandos injured in a raid near the Lebanese port city of Tyre.
Israel said the troops landed in Tyre by sea on Saturday and destroyed a Hezbollah unit.
"Guided by very precise intelligence, navy commandos entered an apartment on the second floor of a five-story building in the north of Tyre where they killed at least three Hezbollah leaders," a senior Israeli naval commander said.
"These three men were notably responsible for firing a missile against the city of Hadera" late Friday, he said.
Friday's missile strike on Hadera caused no casualties but was the furthest south that Hezbollah rocket attacks have reached.
Before departing, the Israeli force also killed and wounded several other Hezbollah fighters who had launched a counter-attack on the raiders.
"Our commandos were able to retreat and to hit with counterstrikes six to eight terrorists from neighboring buildings, killing some of them, and to return to Israel with aviation support," the Israeli naval officer said.
"We could have contented ourselves with liquidating these terrorists with a missile strike, but we launched this risky raid to spare innocent lives and to prove that we are capable of reaching terrorists wherever they are," he said.
Israeli forces were supported by air strikes from helicopter gunships and fighter-bombers.
Hezbollah said its fighters repelled the attackers, killed an Israeli member of the force and wounded others.
Lebanese soldier killed
A Lebanese soldier was among the five killed in the commando raid, a Lebanese army officer said.
One Israeli soldier was killed and another wounded in fighting around the Lebanese village of Taibe.
Also on Saturday, Israeli aircraft repeatedly bombed Beirut's southern suburbs. There were no reports of any casualties, local television and radio stations said. The Israeli army confirmed the raids, saying it had hit nine buildings used by Hezbollah.
In eastern Lebanon the road linking the town of Hermel with the Syrian city of Homs was attacked, residents said. The road was closed because of heavy damage. Further strikes hit areas in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Warning leaflets
Israeli aircraft again dropped warning leaflets on the southern market town of Nabatiyeh during the night, urging civilians to move north "immediately, for your own safety".
David Welch, the US Middle East envoy, has arrived in Beirut to discuss a draft UN resolution with Lebanese officials. He has met Nabih Berri, the Lebanese parliament’s speaker - a key negotiator with Hezbollah.
It was unclear whether he would meet Fuad Siniora, the prime minister, officials said.
France and the US remain divided over the draft. Paris wants existing UN peacekeepers and Lebanon's army to monitor a truce but Washington wants the Israeli army to stay in southern Lebanon until an international force arrives.
The Lebanese government says at least 880 of its civilians and 27 police or government troops have been killed since the fighting began. Forty-four Israeli soldiers and 30 civilians have also died.
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5205D1DC-3F3A-4C5C-944A-6CEB1D7B2BDF.htm
Aljazeera:
Uganda rebels declare ceasefire
Saturday 05 August 2006, 0:59 Makka Time, 21:59 GMT
Uganda's Lord Resistance Army has declared a unilateral ceasefire with peace talks due to start next week, but the government has yet to reciprocate the gesture.
A spokesman for the LRA confirmed the decision on Friday from the rebel group's base in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He said the laying down of arms had been ordered by the deputy commander, Vincent Otti, acting on behalf of Joseph Kony, the LRA leader.
"I order all of our field commanders to, with immediate effect, cease all forms of hostilities against UPDF (Ugandan army) positions and others," Otti said in the statement.
"We hope that the government reciprocate this gesture of goodwill."
In the capital, Kampala, a spokesman, Robert Kabushenga, said the government would not declare a ceasefire but confirmed the Uganda delegation would return to peace talks in Juba, the capital of autonomous southern Sudan next week.
Further talks
Uganda's government rejects signing a ceasefire as a preliminary step in peace talks, accusing the rebels of using truces to re-arm in the past. It has repeatedly said it will only agree to a ceasefire as part of a comprehensive peace deal.
"We want to formally agree everything first, then a ceasefire can be signed," said the head of Uganda's delegation, the internal affairs minister, Ruhakana Rugunda.
The government said it would attend the talks even if Otti and Kony did not.
The two have refused to attend the talks so far, citing their fear of arrest as they, and three other LRA commanders, have been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Atrocious conflict
However, in his statement, Otti hinted that he or Kony could attend the talks in due course.
The talks began on July 14 but were adjourned for consultations after 10 days and re-started on July 31 before being stopped again on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion among the Acholi ethnic minority in 1988.
The group is infamous for atrocities, particularly the kidnapping of an estimated 25,000 children to be used as sex slaves or fighters.
The conflict has been described as one of the worst humanitarian situations in the world by the UN.
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C3DA7287-6ADC-4C5A-995B-642BEBF5693F.htm
allAfrica:
The Justice Experiment
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS
August 4, 2006
In post-war public hearings, Sierra Leoneans shared with their compatriots stories of how rebel fighters cut children into pieces in front of their parents, and forced people to drink the blood of slaughtered family members.
Four years on, the Sierra Leonean people are still learning how to move on from such horrors and their causes. Punishing perpetrators is part of that recovery but, as Sierra Leoneans are quick to point out, only a part.
With ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor behind bars and awaiting trial for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone's brutal 1991-2002 civil war, one of Africa's biggest 'big men' has been halted. Taylor's impending trial before a UN-backed Special Court is set to be the first time a former African president faces an international tribunal for crimes allegedly committed while in office. If convicted at his trial in The Hague, Taylor will serve out his sentence in a British jail.
Alhaji Ahmed Jusu Jarka, who had both hands hacked off by rebels whose guns were allegedly supplied by Taylor, says many Sierra Leoneans are happy Taylor will finally be judged. "This is what we have been looking for. Everybody is anxious for the Special Court to try him."
But the book should not stop there, says Jusu Jarka. He and many other Sierra Leoneans stress that while Taylor's trial is important, other means of seeking justice, such as Sierra Leone's truth commission, should not be sidelined.
Unique to Sierra Leone's post-war recovery is the simultaneous operation of the Special Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), both established under the 1999 Lome peace accord. While the Special Court deals with "those most responsible" for war crimes in Sierra Leone, the TRC provided a forum of the multitude of crimes committed at the grassroots and as well as war-related murder, torture and rape.
National civil society and rights groups say implementing the recommendations of the TRC, which wrapped up its work in 2004, is vital to tackling conditions that contributed to the outbreak of war and which persist today: corruption and lack of accountability in government, weak human rights protections, and crippling poverty and unemployment.
The 'hybrid' Special Court, created by an agreement between the UN and the Sierra Leonean government, comprises judges and staff from in and outside the country, and covers violations of both local and international law. Taylor is one of just 13 people indicted to date.
By contrast, the broader truth commission was created to probe the causes and nature of the violence, establish an impartial record of human rights abuses, and promote reconciliation and healing to prevent a repetition of such acts.
In 2004, the commission published sweeping recommendations for reparations for war victims, action against corruption and human rights protections.
"The TRC recommendations are more relevant to the Sierra Leonean people today than the Special Court," said Oluniyi Robbin-Coker, a Sierra Leonean civil society and rights activist who has led a push for the Sierra Leone government to implement the TRC recommendations.
TRC Chairman, Bishop Joseph Christian Humper added that their report must not remain mere words on paper. "For us to leave it on the shelf would mean business as usual."
Successful experiment?
Debate continues over whether running the court and the Truth Commission at the same time is the best approach. Some observers say citizens did not fully understand the roles and interaction of the two bodies. Despite the court's limited mandate to try only a handful of the worst offenders, many combatants guilty of offences were afraid to speak to the TRC for fear of indictment.
For many, like human rights activist and former head of the national forum for human rights, Joseph Rahall, running the two at the same time is not the way to go.
"It undermined the ability of the TRC to actually get the information it could have gotten, if the Special Court had not been operating, because many of the combatants shied away from giving testimony at the TRC," Rahall said. "Reconciliation was not achieved for a lot of these combatants because they did not come out and confess and ask for forgiveness. They are still finding it difficult to go back to their communities."
A civil society coalition in Sierra Leone - the Working Group on Truth and Reconciliation (WG) - says efforts to clarify the relationship between the TRC and the court did not succeed. "Every Sierra Leonean we interviewed referred to the way in which ordinary people were confused by the relationship between the two institutions until very late in the TRC process, fearing indictment by the Special Court should they cooperate with the TRC," the WG said in a report entitled "Searching for Truth and Reconciliation in Sierra Leone".
Sierra Leonean student, Josephus Williams, agreed: "If it was the TRC before the Special Court then maybe a number of rebels would have come forward to tell us what happened in the bush."
In an interview with the civil society group that questioned Sierra Leoneans in 2005 about the process, one woman said: "I was told by the elders that I would go to prison if I gave a statement to the TRC. There is no support in the village for the Special Court. I now regret not talking to the TRC. I would still like to tell my story."
Sierra Leone's simultaneous approach was seen as a potential model for other post-conflict settings, but the civil society group cautions that it should not automatically be seen as the best route. "We are worried that an 'official view' may take shape at the international level that the 'experiment' was a success and that concurrence will uncritically be endorsed as 'best practice,'" the WG report said.
The civil society working group says it hopes its report will be just the first step "to what should be a much wider and deeper debate in Sierra Leone and internationally".
Some in neighbouring Liberia, which launched its own Truth Commission in June, are calling for a tribunal to run at the same time. Sierra Leone TRC chairman, Humper, says Liberians must study lessons learned from Sierra Leone and other countries, and choose the best approach for Liberia based on its own circumstances. "They have to decide on the right route to sustainable peace and development and lifting up the masses."
Whatever the observers' view of running the two bodies concurrently, most see both mechanisms as critical to healing and progress.
"The TRC and the Special Court are on a journey," Humper said. "They are moving in one direction: a place called 'justice and peace'. But they are taking two different routes." He said the two can be effective simultaneously if the people are properly educated about their roles. He added that the two bodies must be given equal attention: "Then and only then will we arrive at our destination."
Rights activist Rahall agreed: "Both mechanisms are vital. Impunity had taken over the country, so for it to be gotten rid of was vital."
Arrest, trial of 'local hero' sows dismay
The Special Court engendered scepticism among some Sierra Leoneans, with the 2003 arrest and subsequent trial of Samuel Hinga Norman, who led a civil force against rebels bent on toppling President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The court is trying leaders from all three of the main warring factions: the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, and the pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF).
Hinga Norman led the CDF militia, made up mostly of traditional hunters who battled alongside Kabbah's soldiers. While the militia is charged with torturing and killing civilians during the war, Hinga Norman's arrest sparked debate over the legitimacy of the court and its mandate. Many see Hinga Norman as a local hero who fought off the dreaded RUF rebels, and think he should be congratulated, not condemned, whatever the CDF's methods.
"This is why I do not like the Special Court," said Mabel Sesay, a trader in Sierra Leone. "You mean the man who sacrificed his life to save us is the one they have arrested?"
In 2004, the then deputy prosecutor Desmond de Silva, spoke of the Hinga Norman trial controversy, and told the BBC: "I'm afraid you can fight on the same side of the angels and nevertheless commit crimes against humanity."
Student Williams - who claimed that he suffered at the hands of the Kamajors, the largest group within the CDF - said no matter one's cause, the killing and maiming of innocents must be punished. "I cannot argue the issue of who bears the greatest responsibility, but nobody has the right, no matter on what side you are fighting, to take the life of innocent people - if you do that then you must pay."
Miles to go to justice, peace
Meanwhile, countless wrongs must be righted in Sierra Leone. Unemployed youths continue to roam the streets, and amputees - shocked and angry that the very ex-combatants who hacked off their limbs have seen more benefits than they have - are still fighting for a satisfactory compensation package. According to Humper, frustrated former fighters, without a path to reintegrate into society, are "a threat to security".
Transparency and accountability in government remain fairly weak, said Marieke Wierda, the Sierra Leone expert with the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice. And national rights activists say the government has yet to put in place a viable TRC follow-up process and human rights commission. The civil society working group says in its report: "If there is not a credible and effective follow-up phase, many Sierra Leoneans will legitimately ask whether the TRC was ever more than an expensive 'talking shop'."
Copyright © 2006 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200608040839.html
Arab News:
Bahrainis Hold Massive Protest
Mazen Mahdi, Arab News
Saturday, 5, August, 2006 (11, Rajab, 1427)
MUHARRAQ, Bahrain, 5 August 2006 — A strong perception of US and Israeli aggression toward Arabs and Muslims in the region was at the center of a protest where Bahraini Shiites and Sunnis joined forces yesterday to express support for resistance groups in Lebanon and Palestine.
Hundreds of Sunnis and Shiites marched in Muharraq, the northernmost island of the Bahrain archipelago that served as the capital until 1923, chanting “Death to Israel, Death to America” as they waved the Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi and Bahraini flags.
The protesters also carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the late founder and spiritual leader of Hamas Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in a sign of unity of support for all resistance groups.
It was the first time that protesters came out in support of Hezbollah in Muharraq, about 2 miles (3 km) north of the capital, which in recent months has witnessed demonstrations in support of Sunni resistance groups in Iraq and Palestine.
The opposition’s National Democratic Action Society, Waad (“Promise”), central committee head Abdulrahman Al-Nuami said that holding the protest in Muharraq — which is a Sunni stronghold — with the large participation was a clear indication of the unity of the people in facing the aggression directed at the Islamic nation.
“Hezbollah is leading the resistance in Lebanon, but there are other Lebanese groups involved in the fight. In Palestine Hamas is leading the resistance but other groups are involved because this is an issue that concerns all the people,” he said.
Al-Nuami said that Arab governments were no longer influential in determining the outcome or end of this ongoing conflict. He also criticized the GCC countries for not holding a joint meeting to come up with a unified position.
Well-known Sunni scholar Sheikh Naji Al-Arabi, who also took part in yesterday’s protest, said that Sunnis and Shiites were brothers and accused those who spoke in ways that brought division to the unity of the nation at this time of being “delusional” and having “no love for the nation”.
“Those who give such fatwas seek to divide the nation and weaken its resistance at this critical fight,” he told Arab News. “The enemy realized that our unity was the key to our success and that is why they are seeking to flare up such differences between us.”
Al-Arabi, who described such fatwas as “daggers in the back of the nation”, also said that the US and Israel “had dug their own grave by picking this fight.”
“I tell Israel and those who reside in the Black House (in reference to the White House) keep up your aggression so these children will grow up knowing you for who you really are,” said the scholar.
Well-known Shiite scholar Sheikh Hussain Al-Najati downplayed Israeli threats of assassinating Nasrallah, pointing out that the resistance would continue because it was not centered on a certain figure. Al-Najati did not rule out that if the Israelis took such a step they would involve themselves in long-lasting hostilities with the Shiites in the region in particular even if peace were achieved.
An across-the-board rejection of US plans for a “new Middle East” dominated the demonstration where protesters had also placed the Israeli flag on the ground to be stepped on. “They promised freedom, liberation, and peace when they invaded Iraq but the Iraqis are not better off today than they were under Saddam,” an angry female protester said. “In addition to falling under occupation they are being killed in the hundreds each month, they have no peace and their country is on the verge of a civil war.”
The woman questioned the true motives of the US in the region.
“They claim that they want to bring democracy and justice to the region, but it is clear today that they are using Israel to usher in a new age of imperialism where they directly or indirectly occupy us,” she said. “They armed the Afghans and Saddam and both turned to be tyrants who turned on them and they used them as an excuse to occupy their countries, and what is taking place now is an extension of that.”
National Pan Arab Democratic Gathering Vice Chairman Dr. Hassan Al-Aaali, meanwhile, called on the Nobel Prize committee to reconsider the peace prize it awarded to Shimon Peres in 1994.
“He was prime minister when the Qana massacre took place in 1996 and he is deputy prime minister now when the second Qana massacre took place and it is an insult to the Noble Prize to have murderers as champions of peace,” he said.
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=78816&d=5&m=8&y=2006
Clarín: Desde Cuba aseguran que
Fidel está "consciente" y de "buen humor"
Ricardo Alarcón, presidente del Parlamento, dijo que el líder cubano "se recupera positivamente" de la cirugía intestinal y que está "animado". "Se encuentra mejor que yo", arriesgó el funcionario.
Clarín.com, 05.08.2006
Aunque siguen las dudas sobre la recuperación de Fidel Castro, el presidente del Parlamento cubano, Ricardo Alarcón, que volvió a convertirse en la voz oficial del gobierno, aseguró hoy que el líder cubano sigue recuperándose "animado" y de "buen humor".
"Estable, recuperándose, animado". Con esas palabras, Alarcón resumió la actualidad de Castro, quien cedió el poder a su hermano Raúl debido a una severa crisis de salud. El funcionario admitió que "toda operación quirúrgica es algo delicado, algo de cuidado" pero descartó que Fidel esté "inconsciente". "Ni estaba inconsciente, ni estaba dormido, ni estaba sedado, está conversando", dijo el líder parlamentario.
Castro, quien cumplirá 80 años en una semana, "se recupera positivamente" de la cirugía intestinal a la que fue sometido el lunes pasado. Tanto física como anímicamente "se encuentra mejor que yo", afirmó Alarcón, de 69 años.
Ayer, el ministro cubano de Salud, José Ramón Balaguer, había dicho desde Guatemala, donde inauguró un hospital donado y equipado por el gobierno de Cuba, que Fidel "se recupera satisfactoriamente".
Copyright 1996-2006 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/08/05/um/m-01246934.htm
Clarín: Duros combates en Tiro mientras continúan
los bombardeos desde ambos lados de la frontera
Al menos un soldado israelí murió y ocho resultaron heridos en esa ciudad, ubicada al sur de El Líbano. En tanto, Hezbollah lanzó misiles contra la ciudad de Haifa e Israel bombardeó más de 70 objetivos en territorio libanés durante la madrugada. Los primeros ataques dejaron un saldo de cinco heridos leves.
Clarín.com, 05.08.2006
Al menos un soldado israelí murió y ocho resultaron heridos hoy en la ciudad de Tiro tras los duros combates librados allí entre varios comandos de elite del Ejército israelí y milicianos de Hezbollah, según informaron hoy fuentes militares. Además, un soldado israelí murió en la localidad libanesa de Taibeh.
Según fuentes libanesas, citadas por la edición electrónica del diario "Yediot Ajaronot", la operación en Tiro, que duró tres horas, era para localizar y neutralizar las plataformas de lanzamiento de cohetes de largo alcance de Hezbollah. Un vocero del ejército libanés confirmó que un soldado de su fuerza murió y cuatro civiles murieron durante los enfrentamientos, aunque otras fuentes hablan de siete milicianos muertos.
Funcionarios de defensa de Israel confirmaron, por su parte, que un comando de la marina había asaltado esa ciudad costera y que dos de los heridos estaban graves. Estos últimos, fueron evacuados a Israel para ser hospitalizados. Sin embargo, no se informó oficialmente cuál era el objetivo de esa misión.
Ayer, Hezbollah lanzó este tipo de cohetes contra la ciudad de Hedera, a unos 30 kilómetros al norte de Tel Aviv, en pleno corazón de Israel. Hoy, los ataques del grupo guerrillero estuvieron centrados en los suburbios de Haifa, situada a unos 35 kilómetros de la frontera con El Líbano. El saldo de esos bombardeos fue de cinco personas heridas, aunque de carácter leve.
En tanto, la aviación israelí atacó durante esta madrugada más de 70 objetivos en El Líbano, según informó un vocero militar en Tel Aviv. "Concretamente (atacaron) dos plataformas lanza misiles en la parte sur de Beirut, puestos de operaciones, oficinas y almacenes de armas de Hezbollah y un centro de reclutamiento de activistas del movimiento shiíta Amal", señalo esa misma fuente, quien no quiso hacer comentarios de la operación en Tiro.
Copyright 1996-2006 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/08/05/um/m-01246895.htm
Guardian:
Aid lifeline broken after Israelis hit highway
Bombs kill 33 farm workers in Beka'a valley in one of war's deadliest strikes
Rory McCarthy in Metula, Faisal al-Yafai in Damascus, Will Woodward, Duncan Campbell
Saturday August 5, 2006
Israeli aircraft struck deep into Lebanon yesterday, killing at least 33 Syrian Kurdish farm workers and destroying four bridges on a key aid route leading north from Beirut.
The attack on the farm workers, who were loading peaches and plums on to trucks at Qaa in the north of the Beka'a valley, was one of the single deadliest strikes of the war.
It came as Hizbullah demonstrated that its ability to strike at Israel remained largely intact, by firing more than 200 rockets at northern towns and villages, killing three civilians and injuring dozens. Two rockets landed deeper in Israel than any previously, hitting near the city of Hadera, 50 miles from the border.
In Qaa, the bodies of the dead were laid in a row at the scene of the bombing. Some were covered with blankets, others lay in the clothes in which they died. Baskets and fruit were strewn around them. Another 20 people were wounded and taken to hospital across the nearby border into Syria. Israel said its aircraft had targeted a Hizbullah weapons storage site in the Beka'a.
The Syrian minister of information, Mohsen Bilal, appeared on state TV late last night, saying "Syrian blood is now mixed with Lebanese blood. The United States and Condoleezza Rice are responsible for this crime."
UN aid officials said the bombing of the main coastal highway north from Beirut to the Syrian border earlier in the day had cut an "umbilical cord" of aid supplies. Four civilians were killed and others injured - the first time the Christian heartland of Lebanon has been hit. The bombing halted a convoy of eight lorries carrying 150 tonnes of relief shipments, though aid was arriving by air and by sea.
In south Lebanon, meanwhile, ground battles rocked several villages. Three Israeli soldiers were killed as troops fought to seize a "security zone" along the border. Reports last night said seven civilians had been killed and 10 wounded in an air strike on a house in Taibe, in the heart of the battlefield. Some reports said that 57 people were buried under the rubble.
Tony Blair yesterday delayed his departure for a holiday in the Caribbean for what Downing Street called logistical rather than symbolic reasons. He believes the weekend is "crucial" to achieving a peace deal and, though he has an office at his holiday base, making calls on a long-haul flight would difficult. Yesterday he worked on drafts of a UN resolution which Downing Street sees as the cue for a "freezing" of the Israeli action, ahead of further talks on sending an international "stabilisation" force to southern Lebanon.
Diplomacy continues, but differences remain, particularly between Washington and Paris, which will head an international force. The US wants it deployed immediately after a truce, but France wants a proper ceasefire before its troops arrive.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Lebanon was worsening. Yesterday's air strikes cut the remaining major road from Beirut to Syria. Lebanon said 71 bridges across the country have now been hit. Last night, the World Food Programme, coordinating relief efforts, said bombing of the highway north of Beirut "could effectively sever the vital humanitarian lifeline between Lebanon and the outside world".
Convoys from Syria had to be cancelled. Heavy bombing of the southern suburbs of Beirut also forced WFP to postpone a convoy for Tyre and Rashidiyeh. "Tens of thousands of people remain trapped in the region without any outside assistance. They are in urgent need of food, clean water, medical supplies, fuel and shelter," a WFP spokesman said.
Israel's military have defended its strikes on Lebanese infrastructure, saying it is trying to obstruct Hizbullah's logistic operations, and lorries near the Syrian border may carry weapons to re-arm Hizbullah, long an ally of Syria. Strikes in the Beka'a had targeted two buildings that military intelligence showed were used for storing weapons, they said yesterday.
In Israel there is growing concern about the increasing casualties - seven soldiers in two days - while this week has seen the heaviest civilian casualties from rockets.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1837846,00.html
Guardian: 'We hardly notice the blasts now'
- a journey through Lebanon's ravaged south
Amid the ruins, a Hizbullah fighter gathers breath while a Christian family recalls the Israelis warmly
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Saturday August 5, 2006
On the first day of the 48-hour cessation of the Israeli aerial bombardment, I found a man walking through the field of rubble that was Bint Jbeil. He held a bottle of water in one hand and a cellphone in the other. It was the first time anyone had been able to get to Bint Jbeil for more than two weeks. "I am trying to find a mosque to pray in," he said.
Tamim, as he identified himself, was a Hizbullah fighter in his early 30s, a father of two who had studied engineering in Damascus and who lives in Bint Jbeil. For the last 20 days he had been fighting on a hilltop overlooking the town. He had been given a few hours' leave during the break in air attacks to evacuate the few family members he had left in the destroyed town.
"Our commanders don't want us to leave our positions," he said as he negotiated the rubble and debris that littered the streets. "They told us that this ceasefire is just a ploy by Israel to get the fighters out of their hiding places."
Around the town a few Hizbullah members were helping evacuate the families left behind.
Tamim reached a square in the centre of the ruined town. In the middle of the square was a big pond filled with green rainwater, and next to that a mural of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (leader of the Islamic revolution that ousted the shah of Iran in 1979) and the local mullah, topped by two Hizbullah flags. The mural was punctured by shell holes.
"The destruction is big but the stones are not as important as the loss of souls, they just told me about my best friend - he was my childhood friend and he was killed four days ago in Maroun al-Ras, he was trying to hit a Merkava [tank] with an RPG when another tank hit him."
The fighter stopped and held his cellphone up to take pictures of the destruction around him. He pointed to a white building, three storeys high. Half of it had collapsed and inside the walls were covered with black soot. "That was the sports centre, it's destroyed, but it doesn't matter any more."
Tamim described the fighting on the hills around Bint Jbeil and Maroun al-Ras. "The Israelis jam our signal; we have to improvise our attack, come down to get more rockets and go back again, and all the time the drones are in the sky.
"In Bint Jbeil our group didn't come into the town centre, we are always on the outskirts and when the heavy bombs began we went back into the hills. The Israelis never made it to the town; they were only on the outskirts. The real danger is not when we are up against them face to face but when they bomb us. "Three days ago a rocket fell few metres away from me, but God is the saviour."
Tamim said they were using a new model of RPG that had a double warhead and that was very effective against Israeli tanks, as well as a type of guided anti-tank rocket.
"We clashed with them for days over the body of one of their soldiers," said Tamim. "They bombed and bombed, trying to get the body back. We bury our dead where they fall, but the Israelis are ready to get more people killed for the body of a dead soldier."
He finally found a mosque in a side street. The front was covered with fallen electricity cables and the windows were smashed. He pushed the door open and went inside to pray. He made it as far as the prayer hall, then he stopped, looked at his arm and turned back.
Blood was dripping through his shirt from his upper arm. " I can't pray," he said. "My blood is still seeping."
Three days later, I walked along a road south of Tyre, through banana groves and palm trees, over undulating hills with glimpses of the Mediterranean beyond. The roads are pocked these days with craters from the Israeli air attacks and bombardment, some no bigger than a basketball, others 10 metres wide and several metres deep with mangled cars in the rubble. Burned cars lie on the verges, some with rotting bodies still inside them.
The road from Naqura in the south along the Lebanese-Israeli border passes through empty villages. To the right are Israeli hills and to the left, Hizbullah fighters.
In the centre of the Christian village of Alma al-Sha'ab, across the street from Saint Elijah Catholic church and round the corner from the Evangelical church, five men and a small boy sat around a white plastic table for lunch in the shadow of a big fig tree. The wife of the householder and her Filipina maid were running to and from the kitchen with plates of rice and meat stew.
It was a perfect lunch, interrupted only by huge thuds followed by a whooshing sound, every few seconds. The Israeli artillery less than a kilometre away was shelling the Lebanese hills where Hizbullah fighters were firing their Katyushas. One blast shook the door frame and rattled the windows. The lunch went on. No one flinched at the explosions, not even the little boy. "We are so used to it now," said one of the men.
Alma al-Sha'ab lies deep in the Israeli occupied territory of southern Lebanon which Israel left in 2000, handing Hizbullah its biggest victory. Here, the people were preparing themselves for another occupation. "The Jews are less than five kilometres away - at Marwahin," said the householder, a large man in his 40s. "We are used to bombing, but the Jews were the best people who came to this area."
Because the village is Christian, they do not expect to be bombed. When the Israelis occupied south Lebanon, they used the south Lebanese army as a proxy force and employed local people as administrators. An old man dressed in green pyjamas whom people said was the Israeli-appointed administrator of some of the villages on the border strip added: "People call them occupiers, but they were not. They came to help us, they brought us money, lots of money, so much that people spewed dollars, no one needed anything." The old man spent a month in prison after the Israelis left.
Along that road villages were empty, cars that had run out of petrol were left parked on the verges, doors to houses were open and the trees were full of ripe figs, pomegranates and grapes. The houses were empty, even of fighters.
The bombardment was continuous and booms shook the valley. Every half an hour Hizbullah rockets were launched with a thundering boom and then whizzed overhead, some of them slamming into the hillsides inside Israel. The sound of small-arms fire echoed all around.
In the village of Bustan, a woman was releasing her horses and donkey into the fields. "I can't feed them any more," she said. "I don't have food for me and my crippled husband. The boom boom goes on every day! We are going crazy. Allah make the resistance victorious!"
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1837831,00.html
Guardian:
Militants merge with mainstream
· Hizbullah emerges as symbol of resistance
· Anger at Israel's actions unites Shias and Sunnis
Brian Whitaker, Issandr el-Amrani in Cairo, Siraj Wahab in Jeddah and Mark Summers in Manama
Saturday August 5, 2006
Nour, a 19-year-old university student, came with two friends to one of Cairo's biggest squares on Thursday night carrying Lebanese and Hizbullah flags. "This is the first time I ever take part in a protest," she said.
It was organised by Artists and Writers for Change, a liberal movement which campaigns for reform in Egypt. Its members, who include Youssef Chahine Egypt's foremost film director, are precisely the type of "mainstream" people that Tony Blair was pinning his hopes on earlier this week as a bulwark against extremism. As a result of the bombing of Lebanon they are now venting their wrath against Israel and the US and waving Hizbullah flags.
The anger in Egypt ranges across the spectrum from the Muslim Brotherhood - which has offered to "send immediately 10,000 mujahideen to fight the Zionists alongside Hizbullah" - to business associations. Chambers of commerce and trade unions have organised gala dinners to raise money for war victims and the two mobile operators, MobiNil and Vodafone, have set up a premium-rate hotline whose profits are sent to Lebanon.
Dial the number and you hear Fairouz, the Lebanese diva, singing Bahibak Ya Libnan (I love you, Lebanon), followed by instructions for making further donations. In less than a week there have been more than 33,000 calls.
Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel's attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana.
The Shia organisation and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have become symbols of resistance even in such unlikely places as the Gulf countries where Sunnis and Shias have been spotted waving the yellow-and-green flag. Christians are joining in as well. In Damascus yesterday, a Catholic church held a special mass. "Pray for the resistance, pray for Hassan Nasrallah. He is defending justice," Father Elias Zahlawi urged his congregation.
Unlike al-Qaida, admiration for Hizbullah stretches beyond disaffected militants to take in teachers, writers, broadcasters, and doctors many of whom, under other circumstances, would be pressing for democracy and reform.
"When I was young I used to watch people burn US flags in rallies across the world," said Saif al-Adham, a Saudi football trainer. "Now I know exactly why there is such an anti-American feeling.
"It is no wonder that most Muslims consider Israel and the US to be synonymous words for terror ... This type of behaviour encourages radicalism among Muslims the world over."
Khaled Almaeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, a liberal daily based in Jeddah, has been expressing his anger in a series of columns since hostilities broke out. "There is a surging tide of bitterness and alienation," he said. "It is not simply because of Lebanon, but Lebanon may be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
In Baghdad yesterday hundreds of thousands of Shia youths waved Hizbullah flags, proclaiming their willingness to die for Lebanon.
Predictable as that may be, the raising of Hizbullah's flag by demonstrators in Saudi Arabia last Tuesday could prove more portentous. About 2,000 people from the kingdom's marginalised Shia minority defied a ban on public protests in the city of Qatif, according to witnesses. A Shia website carried photographs and quoted the slogan: "Not Sunnis, not Shias - it's one Islamic unity. O beloved Hizbullah, destroy Tel Aviv!"
Mohammed Abdel Qader Jasem, a Kuwaiti lawyer and writer, argued that Israel's action in Lebanon may pave the way for a "yellow tide" (referring to Hizbullah's flag) to sweep the Gulf.
In Bahrain, where marches have attracted up to 5,000 demonstrators, the Sunni monarchy finds itself in the tricky position of having to show solidarity with its Shia majority's indignation without compromising its status as an American ally and base for the US navy's Fifth Fleet.
A furore broke out earlier this week when the British chargé d'affaires in Bahrain sent a statement to the local press which included the sentence: "We all wish to see an end to the horrific photos of destruction on your front pages".
This was interpreted as a call for self-censorship and brought a headlined retort from al-Waqt newspaper: "To the British embassy: stop the aggression and we'll stop publishing the pictures."
King Abdullah of Jordan was one of several Arab leaders who initially blamed Hizbullah for triggering the conflict, though public opinion has since forced them to change their tune.
Despite Jordan's peace treaty with Israel, the king was unusually forthright on Thursday warning Israel's action in Lebanon and Gaza had caused "despair in the whole region" and "weakened the voice of moderation".
Other Arab governments including Egypt and Saudi Arabia - have also toughened their stance but this cuts little ice with many of the demonstrators."Egypt! Jordan! Saudi Arabia! Nasrallah has bested you all," they chanted in the Cairo square on Thursday. Hizbullah's defiance was contrasted favourably with the somnolence of Arab regimes. "The Arab world has changed," Mr Almaeena said. "It has a new breed of young people ... They will not put up with the same old status quo. The political scene in the Arab world is changing too. In a few years there will be those who will resist even more. "
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1837874,00.html
Guardian:
Who's the extremist?
By his own definition - and his actions - Blair is as much of a danger to world peace as al-Qaida
Soumaya Ghannoushi
Saturday August 5, 2006
Tony Blair's speech to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles was revealing. His definition of the "arc of extremism" applies to himself perfectly. He "has an ideology, a world-view, deep conviction and the determination of the fanatic". His discourse is full of a secularised missionary absolutism, founded on a Manichean world-view of "We" and "They". The battle of the demons and angels in old Judeo-Christian apocalyptic literature turns into a conflict of good v evil in Bush's universe, and into progress v reaction in Blair's.
While constantly pointing the finger at Muslims and denying any part in the spread of terrorism, this arrogant rhetoric of neoliberal militantism, which goes hand in hand with military aggression on the ground, is terrorism's chief recruiter and the greatest threat to Britain's national security.
Today, Bush and Blair are not just giving Israel the green light to pursue its war on Lebanon. They are partners in this war aimed at reshaping the map of the Middle East. This is as though the region were a vacuum, or an empty desert - without a people, or memory - to be fashioned in light of their political fantasies and military strategies.
Blair appears intent on turning the clock backwards to the imperial Victorian age, or even to the French Revolution and Napoleon's wars of progress and enlightenment. Like al-Qaida's sacred warriors, he is determined to transform the world into opposite trenches and raging battlefields for the sake of his "global values".
So far, the lofty values that Blair preaches to the people of the Middle East in his fight for their "souls", "hearts" and "minds" have ignited wars that rage to this day, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and God knows where next. Yet he still believes that "we are not being bold enough, consistent enough, thorough enough, in fighting for the values we believe in". While evangelising about justice and progress, he has spearheaded the effort to block attempts by the UN, the Rome summit and the European Union to agree a ceasefire and put an end to the daily carnage in Lebanon.
Blair seems to inhabit an imaginary world he has constructed. He stands at its middle as the King of Salvation, blind to all the bitterness and suffering his absurd wars are creating. Those who exist outside this fantastic realm, he insists, are deluded: from the Arab street, indoctrinated by "years of anti-Israeli and therefore anti-American propaganda", through to the British public, which he fears "sympathises with Muslim opinion", including his MPs, his cabinet, and the Foreign Office.
It is no secret that British foreign policy has for decades been wedded to the Atlantic policies of the US. This state of affairs, which began in the aftermath of the second world war, assumed a definite shape with the Suez crisis in 1956, when Eden painfully realised that Britain was no longer the main player in the international arena. Today the observer finds it almost impossible to distinguish between what is said on Capitol Hill and Blair's pronouncements from 10 Downing Street.
Heedless of the bottomless abyss he has created in Iraq, with its blood-letting, sectarian killing, torture and comprehensive chaos, Blair is preparing to open a new front in Iran, Syria and the entire "arc of extremism which stretches over the Middle East". But the world can bear no more death and destruction.
· Soumaya Ghannoushi will be speaking on behalf of the British Muslim Initiative, which is co-organising today's Ceasefire Now demonstration in central London
Soumayak@hotmail.com
www.bminitiative.net
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1837796,00.html
Jeune Afrique:
Ces richesses que l’Afrique laisse échapper
30 juillet 2006 - par FRÉDÉRIC MAURY
Le continent est l’une des plus grandes zones minières du monde. Il devrait donc tirer parti de la flambée des cours, qui touche la plupart des minerais. Hélas, ce n’est pas si simple…
Coup de chance : ces dernières années ont été marquées par une flambée des prix des produits miniers qui devrait directement profiter à l’Afrique, qui extrait chaque année des milliers de tonnes de son sous-sol. Avec l’Australie, le Canada et l’Amérique du Sud, le continent est en effet l’une des plus grandes zones minières du monde (voir infographies ci-contre). L’exploitation des minerais est une activité dominante et représente le premier poste d’exportation dans près de la moitié des pays africains : parmi eux, l’Afrique du Sud, le Botswana, la RD Congo, le Mali, la Guinée, le Ghana, la Zambie, le Zimbabwe, le Niger, la Tanzanie, le Togo ou la Mauritanie. D’autres pays comme l’Angola, la Sierra Leone ou la Namibie ont également développé un pôle minier conséquent.
La plupart de ces pays doivent ce développement à la modernisation de leurs codes miniers intervenue dans la première moitié des années 1990. Résultat : si on ajoute la production de chaque pays, le continent se positionne comme le premier producteur mondial de nombreux produits miniers dont le platine, l’or, les diamants, le minerai de phosphate ou le manganèse, et possède des réserves de premier ordre en bauxite, en uranium ou en coltan - un minerai qui entre notamment dans la composition des cartes à puce. La moitié des réserves mondiales d’or se trouve ainsi dans la région du Witwatersrand, en Afrique du Sud. Plus marginalement, le continent extrait également du cuivre, du zinc et du minerai de fer. Autant de produits qui ont vu leurs cours sur les marchés internationaux s’envoler depuis quelques années, tirés par la demande mondiale, en général, et la demande industrielle, en particulier, notamment celle émanant de Chine. Entre 2000 et 2006, le prix de l’or est passé de 260 dollars l’once à 700 dollars l’once, celui du platine a bondi de moins de 400 dollars l’once en 1999 à plus de 1 200 dollars début juillet 2006, celui de l’acier (l’essentiel du manganèse est utilisé dans l’acier) a été multiplié par trois depuis 2001, quand le cours de l’uranium était multiplié par cinq.
Sur le continent, cette envolée s’est avant tout traduite par une recrudescence des projets d’exploration et devrait accélérer l’ouverture de nouvelles mines, notamment celles ayant les coûts d’extraction les plus élevés. Preuve de l’importance du continent à l’échelle de la planète, l’Afrique aurait ainsi bénéficié en 2005 de 17 % des dépenses mondiales liées aux recherches minières, derrière l’Australie (23 %) et le Canada (19 %), selon une étude de la Communauté de développement de l’Afrique australe (SADC) et de l’Union européenne. Un vrai bonheur pour les quelques multinationales qui dominent aujourd’hui le secteur des mines. Parmi elles, des entreprises sud-africaines ayant leur siège autour de Johannesburg, et notamment AngloGold Ashanti, fruit du rapprochement entre le groupe ghanéen Ashanti et le géant minier AngloGold. D’autres, comme AngloAmerican, premier groupe minier mondial aujourd’hui installé au Royaume-Uni, ont également leurs origines dans cette partie de l’Afrique. L’une de ses principales filiales, De Beers, y a toujours son siège social et contrôle le commerce des diamants dans la région et, notamment, au Botswana, où elle est actionnaire et gérante de la seule entreprise diamantifère du pays.
Malgré ces quelques cas, l’essentiel des multinationales opérant sur le continent sont australiennes, canadiennes, britanniques ou étasuniennes. En dehors de l’Afrique du Sud, force est de constater que l’Afrique ne compte aucun géant minier à la hauteur de ce que pourrait espérer un continent aussi riche en matières premières. L’Australie, autre zone minière de référence, a longtemps compté de véritables géants nationaux des mines. Aujourd’hui, le pays est la base de deux des plus grands groupes miniers mondiaux, Rio Tinto et BHP Billiton, ce dernier étant le fruit du rapprochement entre un groupe australien (BHP) et le sud-africain Billiton. Tous deux possèdent des sièges sociaux à Londres et à Melbourne. Sans savoir clairement ce qui de l’un ou de l’autre est la cause ou la conséquence, l’absence relative de groupe minier africain va de pair avec le très faible développement d’un tissu industriel local. C’est dans le domaine des phosphates que l’on trouve les rares exemples de création de groupes miniers nationaux de premier rang, avec au Maroc l’Office chérifien des phosphates (OCP), et au Sénégal les Industries chimiques du Sénégal (ICS). Du coup, en termes de croissance économique, si l’envolée des prix ne peut être que positive, l’effet production devrait se faire sentir plus tard, et les pays ayant affiché le plus fort taux de croissance en 2005 restent des pays pétroliers, Mauritanie, Tchad, Guinée équatoriale et Angola en tête, et non miniers.
Sans transformation, l’extraction rapporte peu
Le secteur minier en Afrique, bien qu’il représente une part très importante des exportations d’une vingtaine de pays, contribue relativement peu à l’activité économique. Ainsi, en Namibie, l’extraction des minerais, diamant en tête, constitue environ 55 % des exportations en valeur, mais ne représente que 10 % du PIB et n’emploierait que moins de 5 % de la population… En Zambie, pays producteur de cuivre et de cobalt, l’activité minière fournit les trois quarts des exportations en valeur mais ne représente que 3 % à 4 % du PIB national et emploie environ 11 % de la population salariée, autant que le secteur manufacturier. En 2002, au plus fort du développement de la mine d’or de Morila, l’une des plus importantes d’Afrique et du monde, le secteur représentait à peine plus de 11 % du PIB national, alors que les exportations aurifères constituaient la même année 64 % des exportations du pays. L’une des pistes d’explication les plus classiques à ce phénomène touche à la rareté des groupes miniers locaux et à l’absence d’industries transformant les matières premières existantes. Plusieurs conséquences à cela : l’essentiel des bénéfices réalisés par les exploitants miniers n’est pas réinvesti dans le pays ; les groupes étrangers ont plutôt tendance à faire appel à des banques étrangères ; les produits miniers sont exportés bruts. Une analyse que répètent nombre d’experts. « Certains pays en développement ne sont pas persuadés du rôle des mines en tant que moteur de croissance. Ce qui explique que leur activité minière est caractérisée par l’existence d’industries très utilisatrices de capital, qui constituent autant d’enclaves détenues par des étrangers, dirigées par des expatriés et utilisant des intrants (principalement des équipements) achetés hors des frontières, souligne ainsi Antonio M.A. Pedro, auteur d’une étude sur les mines et la croissance économique pour la Commission économique africaine. De plus, les mêmes prétendent que les multiplicateurs de production, de revenus et d’emplois, ainsi que le potentiel d’apprentissage, sont plus faibles dans le secteur minier que dans d’autres secteurs comme l’industrie manufacturière. »
Comment protéger l’environnement
L’Afrique, en somme, ne profiterait pas réellement de l’exploitation de ses mines, activité trop cyclique et finalement assez peu rentable si elle se limite à l’exploitation sans la transformation ou l’utilisation industrielle. Pis, avancent même certains, les mines seraient nuisibles. C’est notamment l’opinion des initiateurs de la campagne baptisée No Dirty Gold - « Pas d’or sale » -, une initiative lancée par les ONG Oxfam et Earthworks et soutenue par des dizaines de groupes communautaires villageois. La campagne a un double objectif : interpeller le consommateur sur la manière dont est extrait l’or, qui sert à fabriquer les bijoux qu’il achète, et faire pression sur les grands groupes miniers internationaux afin qu’ils respectent l’environnement et les populations locales. « J’ai visité récemment la nouvelle mine opérée par le groupe Newmont au Ghana, explique Radhika Sarin, coordinatrice de la campagne au niveau international. Lors de la première phase de développement de la mine, 10 000 fermiers ont été déplacés ou ont perdu leurs terres. Aucune terre de remplacement ne leur a été proposée. Lors de la seconde phase, à venir, 10 000 autres seront concernés. »
Cette campagne contre l’or sale fait suite à celle menée il y a quelques années contre les diamants de la guerre, ces diamants qui servent ou ont servi en Sierra Leone, en RD Congo ou en Angola à financer les conflits armés. D’autres minerais sont concernés par des croisades similaires, comme le coltan, qui a financé le conflit en RD Congo. L’enjeu est également de faire prendre conscience des conséquences sur l’environnement et les modes de vie locaux de l’activité minière, une activité qui utilise beaucoup de produits chimiques, enlève parfois des terres à des agriculteurs et bouleverse la culture locale. « Souvent, de grands réservoirs d’eau sont bâtis près des mines, car l’eau sert dans le processus d’extraction de l’or, souligne Radhika Sarin. La conséquence la plus grave de la présence de ces eaux stagnantes aux abords des mines est le développement du paludisme. Certaines sociétés, comme AngloGold Ashanti dans la mine d’Obuasi, au Ghana, en ont pris conscience et mènent une politique active contre le paludisme. D’autres ne font rien. » Tout juste ses conséquences sur la santé et l’environnement sont-elles compensées par l’augmentation du niveau de vie des populations locales. Une partie travaille à la mine, mais les méthodes d’exploitation modernes limitent fortement le recours aux employés non qualifiés. Ce sont surtout les commerçants qui bénéficient de l’arrivée de travailleurs. Encore faut-il rappeler qu’après vingt ans au plus la mine fermera, le village se retrouvant tout à coup sans ressources si aucune autre activité n’a été développée entre-temps.
Ces critiques, les multinationales minières les prennent de plus en plus en compte, craignant pour leur réputation. « Nous employons de très nombreuses personnes en Afrique. Et nous versons à ces gens près de 3 milliards de dollars en tout, c’est plus que ce que nous versons à nos actionnaires, expliquait récemment Mark Moody-Stuart, président de l’AngloAmerican, cité par la BBC. Bien sûr, en tant qu’entreprise, nous devons faire de l’argent. Mais cela ne signifie pas qu’il n’y a pas de bénéfices pour d’autres personnes impliquées, comme le gouvernement, les employés, les fournisseurs et d’autres. » Pour autant, et malgré les énormes potentialités existantes, l’extraction minière n’a nullement, jusqu’à présent, entraîné - ou même plus simplement aidé - le développement économique de l’Afrique, alors que des pays comme l’Australie, le Canada et, dans une moindre mesure, l’Afrique du Sud se sont appuyés sur ce secteur pour bâtir des économies qui figurent aujourd’hui parmi les plus riches du monde. Après tout, si les mines ne sont nullement une solution aux problèmes du continent, et ce au même titre que le pétrole, elles apportent des devises et des revenus aux États. Autant de leviers potentiels pour des gouvernements qui n’auraient pas décidé de s’endormir sur leurs mines…
© Jeuneafrique.com 2006
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_jeune_afrique.asp?
art_cle=LIN30076cesrireppah0
Mail & Guardian:
Song migrant
Kwanele Sosibo speakes to musician Lura, who will be part of a special double bill celebrating National Women’s Day
ape Verde, the 10-island archipelago off the coast of Senegal, is a melting pot of contradictions - common in territories with a legacy of slavery. The site of Africa’s first colonial outpost in 1462, the islands are an intriguing mix of Portuguese and West African musical styles, which singer Lura carries in her bloodlines.
“I was born in Portugal, but my parents are from Cape Verde and we have had no problem fitting in,” says Lura, alluding to the subservient relationship immigrants still share with their erstwhile slave masters. “My parents taught me to speak proper Portuguese and we’ve never really been unwelcome. It’s home more or less.” The subtext of her statement is later decoded for me by photographer Oscar Gutierrez, who was translating our phone conversation. Her parents’ attitude, he says, was more or less: “We’re here now. This is how we must behave, but we must never ever forget that we’re Africans.”
While her language was expected to be prim and proper at home, Lura picked up Kriolu from her friends at school and continues to sing in the dialect today. “My influences are the lifestyle I live and that is how it comes out in the music. The people I socialise with and my parents are also an influence. They are of Cape Verdean roots and they have cherished those.”
Because of Cape Verde’s erratic weather patterns and numerous droughts, its economy is dependent on the services industry and most of the population has settled in immigrant communities in countries such as the United States, Italy, France, Wales, The Netherlands and, of course, Portugal. Issues of migration and famine feature in most folk songs and, not least, in her own oeuvre. “I sing a lot about immigration,” she says. “People leaving their country and their parents waiting for letters from their children, wanting to know if they are fine. It’s deeply rooted in local culture and I wanted to bring that into the music.”
There is a joke about how you can always spot those going to Cape Verde at the airport because they pack the most luggage - and all of it is letters. Another peculiar, topical song off her most recent release is Vazulina, about the amounts of petroleum jelly some people go through to straighten their hair.
Lura’s most recent release, entitled Di Korpu ku Alma, is perhaps the most realised fusion of her earlier pop sensibilities with the traditional accordion-based funana beats and the feminine, polyrhythmic batuku rhythms of Santiago, her father’s home island. Whereas she had dabbled in dancefloor-friendly zouk music and R&B in the past, she has used the album “to bring back the classic Cape Verdean music that has been forgotten”.
Towards this end, she enlisted former Cesaria Evoria collaborator, pianist Toy Vieira, to direct her touring band, which has burned up lots of rubber lately.
Lura, who will be part of a special double bill celebrating National Women’s Day at the Bassline tomorrow, admits that she only knows as much as the next person about apartheid, but is acutely aware of her role and position in society as a woman. “Women are still held back in many ways and I’m always aware of how we have to produce music that fits the sex agenda,” she says.
“I still feel targeted and I’m always wary of intentions of men (in the industry). While I’m sensitive, I’m sensible about my femininity. As a woman, I have to be capable and make things happen on my own for people to respect me for my achievements.”
Lura performs with Busi Mlhongo at the Bassline, Johannesburg, on August 5
All material copyright Mail&Guardian.
http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2006/2006aug/060804-lura.html
New Statesman:
Pride at a terrible price
Julie Flint
Monday 7th August 2006
Israel's bombing spree in Lebanon has united a disparate country in an unlikely solidarity with Hezbollah. And the longer the attacks go on, the more determined the resistance will become. Julie Flint reports from Beirut
Amyoun is a mountain village some 80 kilometres north of Beirut. The villagers are Greek Orthodox and it is far removed from the fighting of the largely Shia south. The inhabitants, however, are now flying the flags of Hezbollah. Elsewhere, in the largely Maronite village of Baskinta, Christian youths have convinced their elders not to pull down the Hezbollah flags that refugees have brought with them.
A day after an Israeli air strike killed 56 unarmed civilians in the southern town of Qana, a young Druze nurse in Beirut said: "When Hezbollah captured those two Israeli soldiers, on 12 July, I cursed them. I never expected to change my mind. But today we are fighting for Lebanon."
In the west of the capital, a businessman who is spending $6,000 of his own money every day to help the displaced says: "I am really proud of this country."
But pride has come at a terrible price.
Almost a million Lebanese have been forced to flee from their homes and more than 700 civilians are dead - many of them children killed as their parents obeyed Israeli orders to leave southern Lebanon. Villages along the country's southern border have been pulverised, in the literal sense of the word, and swathes of Beirut's southern suburbs have been flattened. What remains says much about the nature of Hez bollah, 20 years after it first took root in Lebanon as a direct result of Israel's 1982 invasion in pursuit of the PLO.
Beside a Christian bookshop in Haret Hreik - originally a Christian village, now Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut - a garish advert for wedding dresses, complete with girls with big hair and pouting lips, hangs crazily over a sign offering "Tattoos". A few blocks away, fires from the most recent air strike flicker inside a gym that once promoted itself through cardboard men with rippling muscles and acres of bare flesh.
In the wake of the Qana massacre - the single bloodiest attack of Israel's new war in Lebanon - armed resistance, public anger that crosses sectarian lines, and determined government have combined to produce a dynamic that some Arab analysts believe could prove a turning point not just in this war, but in the 58-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
Not only has little Lebanon defied the United States, but Israel's armed forces, which defeated the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in just six days in 1967, have been unable to defeat a militia - Hezbollah - in a country that is not yet fully recovered from 15 years of civil war.
The Israeli army first committed small, elite units, and then brigades. Now it demands whole divisions, but it has so far managed to capture - though not to hold - only two border villages, Maroun Ras and Bint Jbeil. Hezbollah's leadership is intact. Unable to give Washington the military successes against "terrorists" that it needs to justify continuing US support of this war, Israel is sending ground forces deeper into Lebanon, where they will be exposed to guerrilla attacks of the sort on which Hezbollah has built its popularity.
With every new attack, solidarity with Hezbollah grows, even if only temporarily, in the hope that continued resistance will make a negotiated settlement more likely. The more the Israel Defence Forces wreck Lebanon - its ports, airports, radars, bridges, roads and power stations, its milk and fish factories - the more the Lebanese align themselves with Hezbollah's demands for the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel and Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Shebaa Farms. Hezbollah's agenda is becoming the nation's agenda.
Heroic status
For the past 15 years, Hezbollah has, contrary to the impression that many outside the Arab world have, moved away from militancy, first under the leadership of Abbas al-Musawi, who ended hostage-taking despite internal opposition but was then killed in an Israeli helicopter gunship attack in 1992; then under Hasan Nasrallah, who took Hezbollah into government despite internal opposition.
Today, Hezbollah does not seek the establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon and neither does it endeavour to impose Islamic morals, even in the areas it controls. The party is a complex, broad-based amalgam of many tendencies and cannot be wished, or blasted, away.
Israel and its western supporters have forgotten the lesson of the past half-century in the Middle East: that force resolves nothing - not in 1948, not in 1982, and not in 2006.
America's Arab allies are already running scared and shifting from criticism of Hezbollah to support for Lebanon - and, by extension, for Hezbollah itself. Protracted war in Lebanon will only enhance Hezbollah's increasingly heroic status in the region and entrench it as a proxy through which Iran and Syria will seek to gain regional ascendancy.
"The Israelis have put us in a position where we have nothing to lose," a Hezbollah activist tells me. "Do you know what 'destruction' means? We have to fight. We cannot lose. And we are no longer alone."
This article first appeared in the New Statesman.
http://www.newstatesman.com/200608070018
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El recato le duró muy poco a Bush
CONDOLEEZZA RICE DIRIGIO UN MENSAJE A CUBA Y PIDIO UN CAMBIO DE REGIMEN
Mientras la calma reina en La Habana y el Partido Comunista cubano se mantiene al frente del país, funcionarios norteamericanos agitan las aguas con mensajes que alientan un cambio de régimen. Fidel Castro sigue convaleciente y su hermano Raúl no se muestra.
Sábado, 05 de Agosto de 2006
El recato de Estados Unidos duró poco. La secretaria de Estado norteamericana Condoleezza Rice alentó ayer a la comunidad internacional a presionar por una transición que abra el paso “rápidamente a elecciones multipartidarias en Cuba”, en un mensaje dirigido a los cubanos emitido por radio y televisión. El gobierno estadounidense cambió así el tono de sus declaraciones sobre Cuba después de la prudencia manifestada en los primeros días, cuando se limitó a asegurar que “vigilaba la situación” y a ofrecer su ayuda a los cubanos en caso de que optaran por una transición democrática. El ministro de Cultura cubano Abel Prieto respondió duramente al mensaje indicando que “nadie va a escuchar en Cuba un mensaje que venga de una funcionaria de un gobierno extranjero”. Además, el portavoz de la Casa Blanca, Tony Snow, desestimó las “absurdas denuncias cubanas” de una eventual invasión norteamericana de la isla aprovechando la ausencia del poder de Castro, su principal rival en la región durante casi medio siglo.
La jefa de la diplomacia estadounidense habló cuatro días después de que el presidente Fidel Castro, de 79 años, entregara provisionalmente el poder por razones de salud a su hermano Raúl, de 75, quien todavía no hizo ninguna aparición pública. Castro fue operado por una hemorragia en el intestino y se encuentra en una etapa de recuperación que durará varias semanas, informó el gobierno cubano. “Estados Unidos alienta a todas las naciones democráticas a juntarse para pedir la liberación de los prisioneros políticos, la restauración de sus libertades fundamentales y una transición que conduzca rápidamente a elecciones multipartidarias en Cuba”, afirmó Rice, en un discurso difundido por radio y televisión Martí, un medio financiado por su país para transmitir informaciones a la isla.
“Estados Unidos respeta sus aspiraciones como ciudadanos soberanos”, dijo Rice, un día después que el propio presidente George W. Bush llamara a los cubanos a “actuar por un cambio democrático en su isla”, rompiendo el silencio que mantenía desde la entrega del poder en el país vecino. Al igual que el mandatario, Rice instó a los cubanos a “no abandonar la isla” y a actuar “por un cambio positivo en su propio país”, reflejando una vez más el temor de Washington de que un período de inestabilidad en la isla origine un éxodo masivo de refugiados.
El gobierno cubano, que se había mantenido en silencio en estos días, no se pudo contener y respondió al mensaje de Rice. “Los mensajes del gobierno estadounidense sobre la actual situación de la isla no tienen ningún valor para el pueblo de Cuba ni lo van a amedrentar”, indicó el ministro cubano de Cultura, Abel Prieto, en las primeras declaraciones de un ministro cubano tras el traspaso temporal de poderes en la isla. Prieto apuntó que el jefe de Estado en funciones aparecerá en público en el momento oportuno –aún no lo hizo– y afirmó que la continuidad de la revolución está garantizada.
Prieto no fue el único ministro que habló. El ministro de Salud, José Balaguer, también aportó lo suyo e informó que Fidel se recupera positivamente. “Fidel fue sometido a una operación quirúrgica de la cual se recupera satisfactoriamente. Desde los más apartados lugares del mundo hemos recibido mensajes de apoyo por la recuperación de nuestro comandante”, afirmó Balaguer.
En su primera declaración pública tras conocerse la enfermedad de Fidel Castro, el presidente de Estados Unidos, George W. Bush, prometió el jueves “un respaldo completo e incondicional” a los cubanos partidarios de un proceso de transición a la democracia. “En estos momentos de incertidumbre en Cuba, insto al pueblo cubano a trabajar en favor de un cambio democrático en la isla”, declaró Bush a través en un comunicado distribuido por la Casa Blanca. La respuesta cubana fue contundente: “La mal llamada transición es una palabra que no forma parte del vocabulario de los cubanos de acá”, afirmó el diario oficial Granma. “Tomaremos nota de aquellos que, dentro del actual régimen cubano, obstruyan el deseo de una Cuba libre”, advirtió Bush. Hasta el momento, el presidente norteamericano había hecho declaraciones sobre el tema sólo a través de su secretario de prensa, Tony Snow. Las palabras del presidente, quien ya se encuentra de vacaciones en su rancho texano de Waco, dejan muy claro que Washington no apoyará un gobierno con Raúl Castro al mando. “Desde hace mucho tiempo, Estados Unidos ha tenido la esperanza de tener una Cuba libre, independiente y democrática como un vecino y amigo muy cercano.” Esas declaraciones provocaron de inmediato reacciones de rechazo en Cuba. El diario oficial Granma recomendó a Bush que no ponga demasiadas esperanzas en la “transición que pretende para la isla” y aseguró que en el país “reina la calma, aunque allá en Estados Unidos, y en particular en Miami, le duela a un pequeño grupito de trasnochados de la extrema derecha”.
El órgano del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC), institución designada como “única heredera” del comandante en jefe, asegura que Raúl Castro está “firme al timón de la nación”, mientras el mandatario se recupera de su compleja intervención quirúrgica. “La mal llamada transición es una palabra que no forma parte del vocabulario de los cubanos de acá. Para nosotros las noticias hoy hablan de trabajar más y mejor por cumplir el compromiso con Fidel”, dijo el diario. “Toda la política norteamericana, siempre que sea injerencista, va a provocar un acuartelamiento en la isla, que por supuesto se traduce en ningún paso de avance en las necesarias reformas políticas y económicas”, aseguró por su parte el líder de Cambio Cubano y ex comandante Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, de tendencia socialdemócrata.
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Otro día negro de bombas y misiles
MIENTRAS AVANZA EL PLAN DE PAZ, APURAN LA GUERRA
El ejército israelí continuó su ofensiva y bombardeó el norte de Beirut por primera vez y Hezbolá cumplió con su promesa de golpear el sur de Haifa con un misil de largo alcance. Hubo bajas civiles y militares en los dos bandos y pocos avances en el frente diplómatico.
Sábado, 05 de Agosto de 2006
Hezbolá e Israel no descansan. Las milicias chiítas extienden la guerra cada vez más al sur de Israel, y los israelíes la llevan cada vez más al norte del Líbano. Tres misiles de largo alcance cayeron ayer sobre Hadera, a unos 40 kilómetros de Tel Aviv, matando a tres civiles israelíes, mientras Israel mató a cuarenta civiles libaneses y aisló Beirut del norte del Líbano en una de las jornadas más cruentas desde que hace 23 días estallara el conflicto. En el frente terrestre, los enfrentamientos en el sur del Líbano provocaron la muerte a tres militares israelíes y de quince miembros de Hezbolá. En tanto, la diplomacia siguió su curso ayer para intentar alcanzar un acuerdo en torno de una resolución del Consejo de Seguridad, que la secretaria de Estado norteamericana, Condoleezza Rice, dijo podría llegar “en unos días”.
Israel profundizó sus ataques aéreos en las cercanías de Beirut, ciudad a la que dejó más aislada de lo que ya estaba por el bombardeo de cuatro puentes, un día después de que el líder de Hezbolá, Hassan Nasralá, anticipó que bombardearía Tel Aviv si se atrevían a atacar el centro de la capital libanesa. No sólo las zonas dominadas por Hezbolá sufrieron la violencia de Israel. También las áreas cristianas del norte del país, hasta la fecha ajenas a la guerra, padecieron por primera vez ataques israelíes. El más sangriento de los bombardeos ocurrió a plena luz del día en la localidad de Caa, en la frontera nororiental con Siria, donde al menos 28 peones que cargaban un camión de fruta perdieron la vida y 17 resultaron heridos.
Las infraestructuras libanesas siguen siendo los blancos preferidos de los ataques. Uno de los cuatro puentes destruidos ayer se encuentra cerca de “Casino du Liban”, en la ciudad portuaria de Yunieh, en la que habitan mayoritariamente cristianos. También quedó destrozado el puente de Madfun, que une el norte del Líbano con el resto del país y una de las últimas vías de comunicación con Siria. Israel inutilizó además la carretera entre Tareya y Afka, dejando la sinuosa y antigua carretera de la costa como única vía para acceder al norte del país. El gobierno libanés, por su parte, advirtió sobre la crisis humanitaria en la que está inmerso su país y anticipó que, de avanzar esta situación, deberán cerrar los hospitales del sur en cinco días y los de Tiro y Sidón en una semana.
En las batallas terrestres, unos 10.000 soldados israelíes siguen luchando en el sur del país árabe para expulsar a los milicianos chiítas a 15 kilómetros al norte de la frontera. “Esperamos conseguirlo en 24 horas”, aseguraron mandos militares israelíes, que no descartaron expandir esa franja hasta el río Litani, a 30 kilómetros, e incluso más allá. “Llegaremos hasta donde haga falta”, afirmaron.
Hezbolá siguió lanzando sus cohetes, que se acercan cada vez más a la capital israelí. Varias explosiones se escucharon ayer en la ciudad de Hadera, situada a unos 75 kilómetros de la frontera con Líbano y a 40 kilómetros de Tel Aviv, por el impacto de cohetes de largo alcance disparados por las milicias chiítas. Según el Canal 10 de la televisión israelí, dos proyectiles cayeron en zonas deshabitadas de la ciudad y un tercero en una comunidad rural vecina. Hezbolá reivindicó el bombardeo a esa ciudad, donde se encuentra la principal central eléctrica de Israel, por lo que una explosión en su interior puede dejar a oscuras a dos tercios de la población.
Esta es la primera vez desde 1991 que el corazón de Israel queda bajo la amenaza de cohetes enemigos. En ese año, Irak disparó contra Tel Aviv y sus alrededores unos 40 cohetes Scud. El ataque contra Hadera sigue al disparo de más de 200 cohetes de corto y medio alcance contra el norte de Israel a lo largo de la jornada de ayer, en los que murieron tres civiles israelíes. Dos de ellos fallecieron en la localidad árabe de Maydal Krum, próxima a la ciudad de Karmiel, después de que un cohete alcanzara un restaurante. La otra víctima fue una mujer que residía en Maghar. El grupo islámico también anunció que bombardeó el cuartel general de las Fuerzas Aéreas de Israel en el norte de ese país, pero la noticia no fue confirmada por el ejército israelí. El frente diplomático no tuvo descanso. El cese inmediato de hostilidades pende de las negociaciones en el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU, que lideran Estados Unidos y Francia, y que concluyeron ayer –una vez más– sin alcanzar un acuerdo. Los miembros del Consejo se reunieron para debatir la crisis en el Líbano, sin tomar ninguna decisión. Estados Unidos, como aliado y voz de Israel, se opone a aceptar por ahora un cese inmediato de las hostilidades, como pide la comunidad internacional. Además, representantes de la Unión Europea viajaron a Siria para abrir un canal de diálogo con el país considerado clave para destrabar la situación por la influencia que ejerce sobre Hezbolá. Fuentes diplomáticas especulan que podría haber acuerdo a principios de la próxima semana. Condoleezza Rice, secretaria de Estado de Estados Unidos, se mostró favorable a un cese de las hostilidades en una entrevista con el canal de televisión CNN, además de indicar que se llegaría a un acuerdo “en unos días”. En tanto, el presidente de Estados Unidos, George W. Bush, y el secretario general de la ONU, Kofi Annan, conversaron ayer por teléfono durante 15 minutos sobre la resolución. Además de Bush, Annan llamó al presidente francés, Jacques Chirac; al primer ministro británico, Tony Blair; al primer ministro libanés, Fuad Siniora, y al viceministro de Asuntos Exteriores ruso, Andrei Denisov.
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Cuerpos musulmanes
Por Sandra Russo
Sábado, 05 de Agosto de 2006
Después de la caída de las Torres Gemelas la cobertura periodística fue limpia. Estuvo limpia de sangre y de cuerpos deshechos. La inercia del poder hizo que esa parte del horror adquiriera, en las mentes de millones de personas, la forma que su propia noción del horror quisiera darle. El poder no mostraba su talón de Aquiles. Lo cubría con el manto piadoso del recato.
Cuando Estados Unidos invadió Afganistán primero y más tarde Irak, lo que antes había sido la guerra láser del Golfo se convirtió en una pesadillesca galería fotográfica, porque Estados Unidos ya no pudo tener bajo control a todos los medios que cubrían los hechos. Y así pudieron verse los cuerpos destrozados de los civiles que en uno y otro lado cayeron bajo el fuego norteamericano.
Las invasiones a Afganistán y a Irak, por otra parte, fueron el comienzo de una naturalización aberrante: los bombardeos a blancos civiles, que deberían haber sembrado el mundo entero de escándalo y de reclamos, fueron lentamente incorporándose a las mentes contemporáneas como un detalle más de las nuevas guerras. La ONU emitió sus comunicados y eso fue todo. Y nadie se agitó de más por esos cuerpos oscuros y pobremente vestidos que yacían inermes y ya sin gritos en la garganta.
Y sin que nadie lo propusiera, lo formulara, lo defendiera o lo denostara, el ítem “bombardeos a blancos civiles” pasó a ser un mal menor en la eufemística lucha por la libertad occidental. Pero no era un mal menor, ni un error, ni un exceso, sino una parte constitutiva de la épica terrorista que desplegaron primero las fuerzas armadas norteamericanas y ahora las israelíes.
Unos y otros especulan con esos errores que pueden repetirse en cualquier momento. No parecen equivocados cuando desatan su furia sobre ciudadanos y ciudadanas de todas las edades que no tienen nada que ver ni con la eufemística lucha por la libertad occidental ni con ningún flagelo que amenace a nadie, sino más bien lo contrario. Son ellos las víctimas del flagelo del hambre y de la violencia de ambas partes. Esto es viejo como Occidente: la diáfana, civilizada táctica occidental para combatir el terrorismo consiste nada más que en actuar de un modo terrorista, vulnerando estados, pactos, convenciones, y demostrándole al enemigo una impune capacidad para provocar bajas entre la población civil.
Ahora Israel cometió otro de estos cínicos errores, y bombardeó una aldea libanesa. Mató a decenas de niños refugiados. ¿Cuál es el Dios que aprueba eso? ¿Cuál es el valor que se puede alegar defender matando niños refugiados? ¿Por qué habría que creer que el Estado de Israel defiende algo más elevado o mejor que lo que defiende el Hezbolá? ¿Qué diferencia a unos y a otros?
Lo que está pasando en el Líbano no tiene ni el recato ni la elegancia fúnebre que Estados Unidos se reservó para sí y tomó la forma del Ground Cero. Estos cuerpos musulmanes pueden verse en todo su abismal dolor. El hombre sostiene el cuerpo muerto de una niña, acaso de unos cuatro o cinco años. El hombre grita. La carga en brazos y grita. Es el infierno mismo el que está atrás. Y el que está adelante. Y el que está en sus brazos. No hay nada, nada, nada que excuse a nadie de semejante crimen.
Los cuerpos musulmanes, que fueron también vistos en peripecias de torturas y humillaciones a cargo de las tropas norteamericanas, son cuerpos visibles, números que cobran forma y muerte pero que no tienen historias. No hay historias de esos cuerpos. No se llaman Lucy ni llegaron de Michigan ni tienen una madre que protesta frente a la Casa Blanca ni álbum de fotos personales que los medios reproducirán. Una característica de Occidente es otorgarles historia a los cuerpos de sus miembros. Los cuerpos musulmanes son ahistóricos. Parecen todos iguales, y este niño que murió hoy se parece al que murió ayer y al que morirá mañana. Nunca sabremos sus nombres ni cómo pasaban la mañana en sus aldeas, ni cuántos hermanos tenían ni cuándo cumplían años. No sabremos la coloratura de sus voces ni cuáles eran sus juegos preferidos. Son parte de la población sacrificable por la que Occidente considera que una disculpa está bien, bastante bien.
Y no hay disculpa posible. El mal no tiene bando. El mal es eso.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/contratapa/13-70972-2006-08-05.html
The Independent:
Thousands to march in support of immediate ceasefire
By Terri Judd and Colin Brown
Published: 05 August 2006
The largest peace march since before the Iraq invasion is expected to descend upon Downing Street today demanding that Tony Blair calls for an unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
In a powerful demonstration of the groundswell of opinion across Britain, as many as 100,000 people are predicted to take to the streets around Parliament Square.
As Mr Blair was this week forced to concede that even members of his cabinet had "doubts" over his handling of the situation, protesters will deliver children's shoes to his London home to represent those whose lives have been lost in the 24-day conflict.
A letter bearing 40,000 signatures will also be handed in, calling on Mr Blair to work towards ending the "bloodshed and destruction unfolding daily".
Among many high-profile figures supporting today's march is the designer Katharine Hamnett, whose political T-shirts began a trend of sartorial protest more than 20 years ago. She has designed a special limited edition proclaiming simply: "Unconditional Ceasefire Now."
The Stop the War Coalition, which has organised the demonstration at "breakneck speed" in just seven days, said staff had been stunned by the strength of the response. Other organisers of the protest include the British Muslim Initiative, CND, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Lebanese community associations.
"The office has been inundated with telephone calls, emails, people walking inoff the street, offers of help of all kinds and donations from everyone from pensioners to peers of the realm," said the Stop the War Coalition spokesman, Andrew Burgin. "We have not experienced this outpouring of public anger against the British Government's pursuit of the Bush war agenda since the Iraq war of March 2003.
"We received a call from some ladies from Henley who had seen the leaflets in a Lebanese restaurant and said: 'We can't quite believe we are doing this, but we are going to come on your demonstration.'" Mr Blair has delayed a holiday in Barbados to carry out negotiations with other leaders, including President Jacques Chirac, on a United Nations ceasefire resolution. However, it appeared unlikely that a resolution would lead to the immediate ceasefire. Officials said it was hoped the resolution would be followed by a ceasefire, and that a multinational force would be sent in after a pause, but it could be some days before the fighting stops.
The letter to be delivered today will say that the signatories are dismayed that the British Government, almost alone, has not called for an immediate ceasefire.
"We therefore call on the Government to change its position and join the vast majority of the world's states, the UN secretary general and the Archbishop of Canterbury in calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon to save lives and prevent the destruction of that country," it continued.
Bianca Jagger, 56, a goodwill ambassador for the Council of Europe, said: "Israel's ongoing offensive in southern Lebanon and the subsequent killing and targeting of innocent civilians is in breach of humanitarian law.
"The UN Security Council has failed to condemn Israel for the massacre in Qana, of mostly women and children, as it has failed to condemn the deliberate killing of four UN observers. Furthermore, until today it has failed to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Kofi Annan and everyone who is morally abhorred by the war, are all calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. However, Tony Blair continues to support George Bush in giving the green light to the onslaught."
Marchers plan to congregate at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park, at noon before stopping at the American embassy on their way towards Parliament Square for a rally. Speakers will include Ms Jagger, the veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent, and MPs from several parties.
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1214551.ece
The Independent: A terrible thought occurs to me
- that there will be another 9/11
Robert Fisk,
Published: 05 August 2006
The room shook. Not since the 1983 earthquake has my apartment rocked from side to side. That was the force of the Israeli explosions in the southern suburbs of Beirut - three miles from my home - and the air pressure changed in the house yesterday morning and outside in the street the palm trees moved.
Is it to be like this every day? How many civilians can you make homeless before you start a revolution? And what is next? Are the Israelis to bomb the centre of Beirut? The Corniche? Is this why all the foreign warships came and took their citizens away, to make Beirut safe to destroy?
Yesterday, needless to say, was another day of massacres, great and small. The largest appeared to be 40 farm workers in northern Lebanon, some of them Kurds - a people who do not even have a country. An Israeli missile was reported to have exploded among them as they loaded vegetables on to a refrigerated truck near Al-Qaa, a small village east of Hermel in the far north. The wounded were taken to hospital in Syria because the roads of Lebanon have now all been cratered by Israeli bomb-bursts. Later we learnt that an air strike on a house in the village of Taibeh in the south had killed seven civilians and wounded 10 seeking shelter from attack.
In Israel two civilians were killed by Hizbollah missiles but, as usual, Lebanon bore the brunt of the day's attacks which centred - incredibly - on the Christian heartland that has traditionally shown great sympathy towards Israel. It was the Christian Maronite community whose Phalangist militiamen were Israel's closest allies in its 1982 invasion of Lebanon yet Israel's air force yesterday attacked three highway bridges north of Beirut and - again as usual - it was the little people who died.
One of them was Joseph Bassil, 65, a Christian man who had gone out on his daily jogging exercise with four friends north of Jounieh. "His friends packed up after four rounds of the bridge because it was hot," a member of his family told us later. "Joseph decided to do one more jog on the bridge. That was what killed him." The Israelis gave no reason for the attacks - no Hizbollah fighters would ever enter this Christian Maronite stronghold and the only hindrance was caused to humanitarian convoys - and there were growing fears in Lebanon that the latest air raids were a sign of Israel's frustration rather any serious military planning.
Indeed, as the Lebanon war continues to destroy innocent lives - most of them Lebanese - the conflict seems to be increasingly aimless. The Israeli air force has succeeded in killing perhaps 50 Hizbollah members and 600 civilians and has destroyed bridges, milk factories, gas stations, fuel storage depots, airport runways and thousands of homes. But to what purpose?
Does the United States any longer believe Israel's claims that it will destroy Hizbollah when its army clearly cannot do anything of the kind? Does Washington not realise that when Israel grows tired of this war, it will plead for a ceasefire - which only Washington can deliver by doing what it most loathes to do: by taking the road to Damascus and asking for help from President Bashar al-Assad of Syria?
What in the meanwhile is happening to Lebanon? Bridges and buildings can be reconstructed - with European Union loans, no doubt - but many Lebanese are now questioning the institutions of the democracy for which the US was itself so full of praise last year. What is the point of a democratically elected Lebanese government which cannot protect its people? What is the point of a 75,000-member Lebanese army which cannot protect its nation, which cannot be sent to the border, which does not fire on Lebanon's enemies and which cannot disarm Hizbollah? Indeed, for many Lebanese Shias, Hizbollah is now the Lebanese army.
So fierce has been Hizbollah's resistance - and so determined its attacks on Israeli ground troops in Lebanon - that many people here no longer recall that it was Hizbollah which provoked this latest war by crossing the border on 12 July, killing three Israeli soldiers and capturing two others. Israel's threats of enlarging the conflict even further are now met with amusement rather than horror by a Lebanese population which has been listening to Israel's warnings for 30 years with ever greater weariness. And yet they fear for their lives. If Tel Aviv is hit, will Beirut be spared. Or if central Beirut is hit, will Tel Aviv be spared? Hizbollah now uses Israel's language of an eye for an eye. Every Israeli taunt is met by a Hizbollah taunt.
And do the Israelis realise that they are legitimising Hizbollah, that a rag-tag army of guerrillas is winning its spurs against an Israeli army and air force whose targets - if intended - prove them to be war criminals and if unintended suggest that they are a rif-raff little better than the Arab armies they have been fighting, on and off, for more than half a century? Extraordinary precedents are being set in this Lebanon war.
In fact, one of the most profound changes in the region these past three decades has been the growing unwillingness of Arabs to be afraid. Their leaders - our "moderate" pro-Western Arab leaders such as King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt - may be afraid. But their peoples are not. And once a people have lost their terror, they cannot be re-injected with fear. Thus Israel's consistent policy of smashing Arabs into submission no longer works. It is a policy whose bankruptcy the Americans are now discovering in Iraq.
And all across the Muslim world, "we" - the West, America, Israel - are fighting not nationalists but Islamists. And watching the martyrdom of Lebanon this week - its slaughtered children in Qana packed into plastic bags until the bags ran out and their corpses had to be wrapped in carpets - a terrible and daunting thought occurs to me, day by day. That there will be another 9/11.
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1214522.ece
The Independent: Heroine of Nigeria's
anti-corruption camp quits to West's dismay
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 05 August 2006
Nigeria was in shock yesterday after the woman credited with masterminding the cancellation of the country's $18bn debt resigned as Foreign Minister, after the President abruptly withdrew her remaining responsibilities for economic reform.
A government statement announced that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had stepped down because of "a compelling need to take care of pressing family issues".
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank vice-president, was in London negotiating a new debt relief package when she heard the news of President Olusegun Obasanjo's decision to demote her.
She left London without comment on Thursday, to return home to a statement of regret from the President that she had decided "to leave at this stage of our reform programme" which he said was beginning to yield "positive results".
Speaking on Nigerian television, she thanked the President, who had been "gracious enough to allow me to leave", so that she could take care of her family, who have remained in Washington.
But the resignation of such a prominent African reformist is likely to be greeted with dismay by Western donor countries which had placed great faith in her capacity to deliver.
As Finance Minister since 2004, when she was head-hunted from the World Bank, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala persuaded Western donors that Nigeria was not an oil-rich nation and should qualify for debt relief. She increased civil servants' pay, while slashing their perks, and brought in reforms in banking, insurance, pensions, income tax and foreign exchange.
But her anti-corruption campaign, which saw the Nigerian police chief jailed and a number of judges and senior customs officials sacked, brought her into conflict with the most powerful interests in the land.
Just over a month ago, President Obasanjo took a crucial decision to move Mrs Okonjo-Iweala from the finance ministry to head the foreign ministry, with no reason given.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, a diplomatic novice given her previous 20 years' experience as a World Bank economist in Washington, offered to resign, but was mollified by being allowed to remain as chairperson of the economic panel.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala's successor as Finance Minister, Esther Nenadi Usman, has repeatedly said she would continue the crusade. Mrs Usman has now been promoted to head of the economic team, reuniting the main economic portfolios inside a single ministry.
Speculation has been rife in Nigeria about an ongoing rift between the President and Mrs Okonjo-Iweala. One Nigerian newspaper reported that their dispute escalated this week when Mr Obasanjo learnt that the Foreign Minister was planning to lead Nigeria's delegation to the forthcoming Singapore meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. As he ordered Mrs Usman to be confirmed as leader of the economic panel, he also reportedly asked Mrs Okonjo-Iweala to confine herself to Non-Aligned Movement issues. This is said to have been the last straw for the high-flying economist. However the most likely explanation is that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala's anti-corruption drive was causing too many waves in the Obasanjo administration, which in 2003 won the doubtful accolade as the most corrupt place on earth, according to Transparency International.
The governor of Abia state, Orji Kalu, told reporters in Lagos that he was not surprised by the resignation. "I knew Mrs Okonjo-Iweala would go because the government is trying to take all the money now and side-track her. Mrs Okonjo-Iweala has done the right thing and I congratulate her for resigning from a government that is not workable; from a government that is very corrupt, and I have told everybody that this government is very corrupt."
Under Mrs Okonjo-Iweala's stewardship, Nigeria became the first African country to be freed of its debt to the Paris club of rich nations last April, under a debt-relief deal that was supposed to clear the way for billions of dollars to be spent on reducing poverty.
She won over the donor countries by arguing that Nigeria is in fact a poor nation where most of the 130 million population live on less than 60p per day - and one in five children does not reach the age of five.
Because of its oil wealth, Nigeria was excluded from last year's landmark deal before the G8 summit in Gleneagles in which rich countries wrote off the debts of 19 of Africa's poorest countries. But Mrs Okonjo-Iweala promised that if the donor countries wrote off 60 per cent of Nigeria's debt, she would pay off the remaining $12bn with money saved by budget reforms. Her plan won the backing of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who pushed for the deal agreed in June last year with the Paris Club.
But the oil industry remains mired in corruption. According to one telling anecdote, when she presented President Obasanjo with a report on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, under which oil and other companies agree to publish what they pay and governments open their accounts to scrutiny, the Nigerian leader sealed it. He was apparently afraid that it would reveal discrepancies between government revenues and the budget.
"Obasanjo didn't want to hear about missing oil revenues, because people would assume that he stole them," one source said.
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1214504.ece
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